Jumping Jack Clennett

No-one's forcing you to read posts which are so far below your intellectual level, Bush Demon. Hey, Eric, a point about that game where Grinter flattened Mew(fairly). We had four really tough players in that '87 team, Grinter, Hughes, Spalding and O'Dwyer. O'Dwyer didn't bump people , but he was described as being like a "string bag full of set-squares" as an opponent. Viney was more of a peripheral player at that stage of his career. This toughness no doubt contributed to the success of that team.

Yes, Eric, it was that annoying, but effective, ex-Geelong Bolton.

What about "Duke" Spalding's bump on Bolton up in Sydney? Apparently dislocated both his shoulders! Also, Grinter's great bump on Mew in the '87 Prelim. Spalding landed a great bump on Dipper that game, also. Does anyone know which came first, Spalding on Dipper, or Dipper on Flower? I presume the latter.

'Redleg' How I hope you're right, Redleg. Deep down, I feel Neita's past it. Perhaps his value is in the quality backman he takes, and the space he creates with his gutsy body work. Lurking in the back of my mind is that this great captain has lost his mobility,which means he doesn't make it to the contest, and that the opposition will keep their best back for someone else. Does injury make you drop chest marks? Why is there no lead from full-forward when there's a clean break from the centre? Please, please , prove me wrong, Neita. I respect you so much for the fantastic contribution you've made to the club we love. If Schwarta hadn't been injured, you'd have been right up there with the great centre-haf-backs of all time.Perhaps I've underestimated you in recent seasons since you've been playing half-fit. Please, please, show me I'm under-valuing your current potential. This is our 150th year. This is the time for miracles.

I got married the day before that game where Jako dominated against North(19/4/91). We went to the Whitsundays for our honeymoon. Luckily for me, there were no suitable flights out on the Saturday. We stayed at a posh city hotel. At about 1.45pm, I said to my new wife...."mind if I pop down to the MCG to watch the Demons for an hour or two.?" "OK", she said, not realising what was in stall for her for the next(at least) 17 years. Sat., 20th April 1991 was a beautiful day!!!I saw us kick our equal record score(equalling the score also kicked against North about 5 years earlier). I saw the first Melbourne player to kick double figure goals since Fred Fanning kicked 18 in round 18 1947. It was bliss!!! It was nearly as good as round 22 1987!

['Nugget Jones' date='Mar 18 2008, Thanks, Nugget. It's amazing how there's always someone who can give information on queries like mine! I suppose it's a bit different, though, to include a bit of Chinese script on the home page of the main website. That really stood out to me on West Ham's.

I am an avid reader of Demonland(and to a lesser extent Demonology). I don't often visit the official mfc website, since I find out most of what I want to know from the unofficial ones, which are managed excellently, and are the beneficiaries of some incredibly knowledgeable posters. Is there a forum on the official site? That would make it more attractive to me as a visitor. Especially if there could be some feedback, and answers to queries. I suppose we'd just get the "party-line" that we see in the media ,regurgitated at us. I also follow West Ham in the EPL(to a far smaller extent!) Their unofficial websites are rough as guts, and need the rules Demonland enforces. But on the official West Ham site, I noticed, in a corner, something WE need badly in our "China probe".............some Chinese writing!!! If a Chinese surfer with poor English stumbled on our site, he'd be much more likely to take a continuing interest if we displayed our desire to woo the billions by doing a few articles in the language they can read. Perhaps it's difficult to mix different scripts on a single page, but it seems to be possible on EPL websites. Does anyone know if we perhaps have a separate website, aimed at Chinese speaking people?

quote ='myfavouritemartian' date='Mar 16 2008,I.m with you on this 'zebgrowler'. I'm not. Thanks for the reports on the match, fellas....very informative. I'm slightly disappointed because other posts(on other threads) had me hopingthat Cale might have been ready for AFL. Now I know! Glad about Bruce, Wheatley,Dunn and Bartram. We need Wheats for point kick-ins!

Remember when Barrass lined Robbie up at fullback on Blight on the MCG against North! Boy, were we scraping the barrell at that time!!

[quote name='Rhino Richards' "we would have been easy meat for a primed Carlton side on a hot September afternoon." Perhaps, Rhino,but don't forget,absolutely no-one tipped us for any of those finals that year. Admittedly, the game we should have won v. Haw. was a bruising slog, but those boys were on a high. I reckon they were capable of keeping it up, and raising it for one more week. Carlton weren't in the same class as a fit Hawthorn, but we knocked the stuffing out of them. Useless to speculate on the distant past, you may say, but my point in raising this topic was the value of team spirit. I'm praying Bails can infuse into the Demons in the same way "Swooper"did.

[quote name='mo64' "That's where it was lost." Handy having a poster called a goal,too.

quote name='warren dean' "Still the most emotional aftermath to a Demons game I have seen." Do you remember the interview with Northey on ABC after the match!? He was a broken man! His face was white. All the bones were sticking out. He looked like a guy who'd just been told his family was wiped out. He could see no consolation in the fact that his boys had been so heroic. Northey put all his heart and soul into coaching, and it positively affected the players in their team spirit. He even got RICHMOND into the finals later on. I'm praying that Bails might be able to produce something out of the ordinary. Team spirit is never going to be a factor in practice games. I think he's building up for an assault on 23/3 !!

I was talking to my 22yr. old Demon-fan godson about past Demon performances. I told him about what happened that day in Sept 87 in the prelim final at VFL Park, and he said he'd love to see it. I managed to find my old VHS copy and put it on DVD for him. I look forward to hearing his reaction. I watched it again while transposing it! I was struck by the fiendish endeavour of the Melbourne players. They were running in waves, tackling like madmen, and chasing the ball with absolutely no thought of self-preservation. There were ordinary players in our side. Dean Chiron did well on Platten. Douggie Koop was out there, and so was Simon Eishold. We had three real tough guys....Grinter, Hughes and Spalding(who nearly busted Dipper's shoulder with a thunderous bump, as` did Grinter on Mew.) Hawthorn was full of champions. Though Dunstall was out injured, so was Lyon(and Connolly) for us, and Flower was badly injured in Q2. Given half ordinary luck, we'd have beaten one of the greatest teams of the century.( though Hawk supporters claim we kicked with the wind for 3 quarters, if you watch the game closely, it's clear the wind was variable, and long goals were kicked at both ends in each quarter.) Hawthorn were an experienced side, and knew how to "milk" frees, and, WOW, was this evident. John Kennedy hit the post at the 11min. mark of the last quarter and it was paid a goal(provable on video replay). Eishold marked on the point of the goalsquare and was put on a ridiculously acute angle(though he should have done better!)Both of these events(and others) should have altered the final result by 5 points, meaning a grand-final post(and premiership)for us. John Northey obviously had the power to instil absolute passion into his men. He had some pretty special warriors in Flower, Stynes and Wight etc, but he knew how to extract wonders from them. I'm hoping Bails has that skill. On that, I pin my hopes for our on-field success in the near future.....and I don't think it's impossible.

Well said, Grazman!

It strikes me that very few Demonlanders were recipients of the disguised dogfood.....or at least they would have commented on what a foolish error I made!

My daughter was taking the goodies out of her Demons family day show bag, and passing on the stuff she didn't want on to me. This included a plastic pack of "Evo", which appeared to be a new type of snack. I thought..."I'll take that into work and snack on it at morning tea!" Sure enough, I took it in to work, and before trying it myself, offered some to a colleague, who recoiled in horror........"What are you giving me DOG FOOD for????? On closer inspection of the pack, that's what it was!!!!! Anyone else fall for it? What a strange inclusion in a child's "show-bag"!

The only players I spoke to were Jones, Frawley and Weetra, who all said they were injury-free. (but would you confide in a supporter if you had a tight hammy etc?)

The stats came from "Champion Data", hopefully a reliable source, since they're the mob we base our tactics on.

Please help me. I must have missed something in my scanning of this interesting lady's sporting biography. Is she somehow related to a Melbourne footballer? Otherwise what's the relevance of this article to an MFCfootball website?

quote 'Jarka' "Gardner is easily the best one we've had since Tiger, no doubt" Just a minute..... you're talking about Ian Ridley, once my favourite player,who,in a moment of madness,( that I'm sure he regrets, ) tried to extinguish the Club we love. He's the man who made me realise that players and administrators come and go, but it's US, the real MFC lovers, who just join every year, and turn up match after match, whatever happens, who really are what the club's built on. Ridley was one of the gutsiest and most skilful players I've ever seen. He was an unsuccessful coach, and the president who nearly dissolved our Club. I think Gardner's doing a good job in difficult circumstances. He and his board(in retrospect) made a poor choice of CEO's in Harris, but we all make mistakes. Ian's mistake was unforgivable.

You heard it after our most recent game(for points). Unfortunately it was the Carltank supporters singing it.

Some of Austin's manoeuvres reminded me of the great Maurice Rioli.

Fantastic if such a group of great ex-servants of the Club actually care about its future. (unlike in 1996).

[quote name='demoniac' Good synopsis, Demoniac. I think the Foxtel cameramen were disadvantaged badly by the guernsey clash(worse in the bright sunlight).